Book Reviews

The Darwin Legend

James Moore Historian of Science at the Open
University (Milton Keynes, UK) Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1994; 218 pp

Deathbed conversion stories have long been part of the lore surrounding
debates about the existence of God, the strength (or weakness) of agnostic and
atheistic philosophies, or the persuasive force of theism and Christianity. For
many theists, so-called "last minute conversions" provide some
evidence that, in the end, atheism collapses before the reality of death, as an
unbeliever suddenly realizes that his existence will continue beyond the grave.
Skeptics, however, have their own roster of stories, replete with atheists
considering their final end with imperturbable calm (e.g., David Hume). In the
origins debate, many participants have heard that very near the end of his life,
Charles Darwin himself returned to the Christian faith of his early years (or
became a Christian for the first time). "Lady Hope," a suspiciously
apocryphal-sounding character, is typically credited with providing this
information. She is said to have discovered during a visit to Down House
(Darwin's home), that Darwin embraced Christianity just before he died. (In
fact, in the story, Lady Hope visits Darwin not strictly speaking on his "deathbed,"
but in the fall of 1881, about six months before Darwin died.)

Many creationists (not to mention evolutionists) grimace on hearing this
story. The Darwin of the Autobiography, they point out, is the Darwin of
historical reality: he lost his faith inexorably, its last traces probably
obliterated long before 1881 (in 1851, at the death of his beloved daughter
Annie). By the time of his death Darwin was a confirmed agnostic. In any event,
what difference could Darwin's religious views possibly make to the truth of
evolution? The theory must be considered on its merits. Suspiciously vague and
ill-documented conversion stories belong in the dumpster of historical hokum.

Now James Moore, historian of science at the Open University (Milton Keynes,
UK), has emptied that dumpster and perhaps several hundred other heaps of
rubbish to get at the "truth" about the legend. ("Truth"
belongs in quotations marks here, for Moore, a hard-core cultural relativist, is
skeptical about its very existence. Richard Dawkins has joked that a social
constructivist at 30,000 feet -- i.e., in a modern jetliner -- is a hypocrite.
We might paraphrase that remark to include Moore: a social constructivist who
throws himself for years into pursuing documents -- actual pieces of paper whose
existence genuinely matters -- doesn't take his social constructivism very
seriously. Maybe "truth" exists after all?) In his new book The
Darwin Legend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1994; 218 pp.), Moore
argues that the mysterious "Lady Hope" was quite real, and left a wide
trail in historical documents and other evidence. Furthermore, she almost
certainly did visit Darwin near the end of his life. However, Moore
doubts that Darwin underwent any sort of conversion (which indeed, he points
out, Lady Hope never claimed)

Moore's book is documented with a rigor completely unbefitting a cultural
relativist -- who ought to care, as Richard Rorty argues, only about what his
colleagues will let him get away with. For twenty years, Moore has run down the
legend of Darwin's conversion:

My sleuthing has taken me to three continents; through acres of decaying
newsprint and reams of domestic correspondence; over mountains of monographs
and even on a wild goose chase into the Alleghenies....I have located over one
hundred occurrences of the legend in manuscript and print, including eleven
original sources, at least two of which may be unconnected with Lady Hope. I
have also compiled the Darwin family's angry reaction to the conversion story
in ten private and published letters. All this evidence is transcribed or
fully documented in the appendixes (p. 24)

Moore establishes definitively that Lady Hope existed. Born Elizabeth Reid
Cotton on December 9, 1842, in Tasmania, she lived for most of her life in
England, marrying into the title she proudly claimed in public writings and
appearances. After emigrating to the United States as a penurious do-gooder, she
died returning to England on March 8, 1922. Furthermore, Moore concludes, Lady
Hope probably did meet with Darwin in the autumn of 1881. Her story contains "startling
elements of authenticity" (p. 94) and "has the ring of truth about it"
(p. 97), in providing details that only an actual visitor could know. Moore, who
as the leading biographer of Darwin may know more about the minutiae of the Sage
of Downe's life than anyone now alive, draws on a fund of details about Darwin's
family life and the physical setting of Down House. The particulars of Lady
Hope's account could be known only to someone, Moore believes, who actually
visited the house and conversed with Darwin.

It is unlikely however, argues Moore, that Darwin changed his views of
Christianity. From the 1840s to his death, Darwin abjured Biblical revelation,
regarding the doctrine of eternal damnation as "damnable," and
privately encouraged his atheistic correspondents to avoid direct attacks on
religion - not because Christianity was true, however. There were better tactics
to employ. "The gradual illumination of men's minds," Darwin claimed,
followed best "from the advance of science" (p. 49). Moore finds it
incredible that these entrenched views could be overthrown as Darwin saw the end
of his life approaching.

In a recent lecture at Wheaton College (on April 1, 1995), Moore observed
that his friend Fred Burkhardt, an editor employed in the Darwin Correspondence
project at Cambridge, worried that Moore's book would revive the legend of
Darwin's conversion. There seems little doubt that Moore's meticulous
documentation has proved beyond question the reality of Lady Hope. Yet the
weight of evidence - for those who value the evidence, and trust James Moore to
the extent that such evidence actually exists (thus, who are not social
constructivists) - still weighs against Darwin's "conversion." In any
case, the theory of evolution has a life of its own. Its truth or falsity must
be considered even if Darwin was taken up to heaven by a crowd of angels.